A Bobcat in the Neighborhood

Humans and Nature Together Again

With some older central cities being the exception, our modern cities with single family homes sitting on large lots and surrounded by wide swaths of green space or vacant land provide good habitat for animals as well as humans.

While late nineteenth and early twentieth century people worried about loss of wilderness and wildlife due to increasing urbanization, contemporary urban residents worry about how to deal with increasing numbers of wild animals that are posing a threat to property and even life itself.

A couple of years ago after hearing that a friend of mine's husband had collided with a deer on the road at night for the second time in two years, I ran across an article claiming that property damage from collisions with deer and other wild animals inhabiting suburban areas had reached over a billion dollars a year as well as costing the lives of close to 300 people per year.

An Evening Visit by a Bobcat

My family and I live in a suburban neighborhood consisting of about 150 townhouse homes on small lots in close proximity with patches of open desert around us in suburban Tucson, Arizona.

While not frequent, we have had javalinas and coyotes wander through the neighborhood on occasion. They were as wary of us as we were of them so both kept our distance. Unfortunately, they did not wait around for me to get my camera.

We also had a large snake in the back yard - my wife thought it was a sidewinder rattlesnake but a fellow Hubber pointed out in the comments on that article that it was a harmless gopher snake. She was able to get pictures of that snake.

My wife also got some nice pictures of a bobcat which tends to visit the yard of the hospice where she works. The hospice is located in a semi-rural enclave with a fair amount of vacant land and homes built on large lots. Despite the fact that this area is a semi-developed island completely surrounded by urban development, many wild animals live in this enclave.

At twilight one evening she was able to get some good pictures of the cat as it made its way through the yard of the hospice. While her photos were somewhat dark, I was able to enhance them and lighten them up using the tools that accompany Windows Photo Gallery.

Bobcat beginning its nightly prowl for food | Source

Bobcat looking for prey in tall grass | Source

Bobcat in a backyard in Tucson, Arizona | Source

Bobcat pouncing on a small prey | Source

Bobcats, whose scientific name is Lynx Rufus, are common in common to the American Southwestern and are close relatives of the Canadian Lynx and similar species of such cats which are found all over North America.

Bobcats, like many other members of the cat family, are nocturnal and can be found mostly at night. They are thus not commonly seen by the average person hiking in the wild or in their backyards in places like Tucson. As mentioned above, these photos were taken shortly after sunset when the bobcat began his prowl for food at night.

While bobcats and their close relatives are common and are on display in many zoos, they are often difficult to see in zoos as most zoos are open only during the day and the most one usually sees of these types of cats is a furry ball sleeping in a cornor.

Bobcats are carnivores who hunt and eat meat. Because bobcats are not very large their size being about twice that of a housecat, their prey tend to be small and include rabbits and other small rodents as well as other small prey like insects and family pets. According to WikiPedia, they have been known to go after deer on occasion as well.

As to family pets, a bobcat will attack small dogs, however, according to people I have talked to, this is not common unless the dogs get out and are running loose at night in areas where bobcats are present. Owls, another nocturnal hunter, actually present a greater threat to small dogs in yards at night although even they are not a major threat if owners keep an eye on their small dogs in the evening.

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Comments

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Author

Chuck Nugent 5 years agofrom Tucson, Arizona

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the Hub and my wife's photos of the bobcat.

LetitiaFT 5 years agofrom Paris via California

How lucky you are! What a beautiful sight.

melanie 6 years ago

it sure looks like a cat to me.but their awesome wow how these pictures i live in the mountains and i have never seen one and theirs a lot up here but it still looks like a cat it could be

Lora101 7 years ago

Amazing pictures!

Author

Chuck Nugent 7 years agofrom Tucson, Arizona

alexchi01 - glad you enjoyed this Hub.

Yes, these are wild cats and they and their relatives can be found in many parts of North America. We have quite a bit of wildlife living near urban areas and their numbers are growing. Here is a link to a Hub I wrote on this:

Hee hee... I love your pictures of the bobcat. Are they wild cats in the states. I live in Singapore and I don't see a lot of bobcats here.

donotfear 7 years agofrom The Boondocks

I love this! You know, we have tons of Bobcats around here in the Sulphur River Bottoms but I've yet to see one in a close encounter. The closest I've actually come to seeing one is catching a brief glimpse of a shadow crossing the road at dusk. Wow. Great photos!

elisabethkcmo 7 years agofrom Just East of Oz

enjoyed this very much, especially your pictures

my brother lives in the desert in Vail, I'll have to send him the link to this hub

abcd1111 7 years agofrom Glen Ellyn, IL (Chicago suburb)

Awesome photos of a bobcat out of his natural environment. Thanks for the article.

paul_gibsons 7 years agofrom Gibsons, BC, Canada

smashing pictures... we see them here quite a lot, in fact increasingly so as, thanks to increasing development food becomes more easily avalable,especially as more people decide to do some "backyard farming", and they can do with much smaller ranges than totally "in the wild". Also that changes their habits a bit and they become less nocturnal although you still won't see them much as they are masters of stealth, even better than cougars with whom they overlap here. I will write on bobcats in my part of the world and a bit on their biology some time in the not too distant future

Putz Ballard 7 years ago

Chuck, great hub! Reminded me of a time when coon hunting with a friend of mine in Western North Carolina. The first and only time I heard a Bobcat's scream, scared me out of my wits.

Robert Ballard

thaninja 7 years agofrom America

I used to want to raise bobcats in captivity, but they never really become tame like a housecat will. They are beautiful animals, and small enough that I am not to scared of them like I am with the cougars that we get in the mountains here...every year a couple kids get attacked.

Author

Chuck Nugent 7 years agofrom Tucson, Arizona

EldercareABC - Wow! That was quite an experience you described.

I have always been told that, unless you appear to be a threat to them, most wild animals will tend to run away rather than attack a person as they are usually as scared of us as we are of them.

The funny thing is, I have lived in Arizona for over 20 years and, except for a couple of javalina that wandered into the neighborhood and some coyotes I have seen at a distance, it is my wife who came here from Europe and married me five years ago who has seen the most wildlife. In July she looked out the window and saw a large snake on the patio. She took pictures of it and thought it was a sidewinder rattlesnake. I published a Hub ( https://hubpages.com/animals/A-Sidewinder-on-the-P ) about her experience with the snake along with the pictures she took. Then she comes to me a couple of weeks ago with the bobcat photos.

So she provided me with pictures and ideas for two Hubs within a two month time period. I would hire her to help with my HubPage publishing except for the fact that my Google AdSense money is deposited directly to our joint account so she doesn't need the job as she already has access to the money.

Chuck

EldercareABC 7 years agofrom USA

Great hub-- when 19 year old was 4, we were visiting friends. He was playing with my friends 6 year old out in their woods, when we suddenly saw them both running at us at break neck speed. Both swore that they had just run into a "lion" and wanted us to phone the zoo to see if any had escaped. Apparently, it had roared at them when they got near. Both were known for drama and we thought their imaginations had gotten the better of them.

That night my friend heard her dog barking ferociously and as she got closer, she heard a roaring sound and saw the bobcat on her back deck.

(I was grateful it had roared and not attacked one of them)

Carmen Borthwick 7 years agofrom Maple Ridge, B.C.

Good hub Chuck and great photos from your wife. Thanks for sharing an exciting sighting. Its unfortunate that habitat is being infringed on so dramatically everywhere in the world. In response to Linda's comment [above] I think the problem stems from a complete lack of planning when it comes to urban development.

Linda Myshrall 7 years ago

Nice photography (Chuck's wife!) on a difficult photographic subject. I have never seen a bobcat photgraphed in such a candid way before... awesome. Urban sprawl is a messy thing and urban planning a difficult balancing act. In your region, the Tucson shovel nosed snake is nearly extinct because of it. Great hub. I gave it a thumbs up.

Author

Chuck Nugent 7 years agofrom Tucson, Arizona

lyricsingray - thanks for your nice comments. However, credit for the photos goes to my wonderful wife - I just posted them and added the text.

Chuck

lyricsingray 7 years ago

Learning about animals is one of my favorite things to do. I knew nothing about a Bobcat and truthfully, she is quite beautiful. Glad you were able to capture those photo's-thanks for sharing it with us, Kimberly

Jerilee Wei 7 years agofrom United States

Enjoyed the photos! Haven't seen any bobcats here but coyotes and wild boars are an every day experience.

forlan 7 years ago

nice bobcat, I am afraid it will attack human or human pets

sandi3m 7 years ago

Great pictures, and an interesting story to read!

Laurel Oakes 7 years ago

Bobcats are beautiful creatures, your wife did a great job displaying that.